It wouldn't be MCC if it didn't go over schedule, wouldn't it? I apologize for spacing on this, gencon happened and I blanked out. Working on them now.
Appeal: 2/3 - Timmy is not happy sacrificing creatures. Johnny LOVES sacrificing creatures when this is what he gets for it, and Spike is going to be okay with the tradeoff, assuming his deck cooperates. Elegance: 3/3 - You read it, you get it. Everything flows here, and it's a great image.
Viability: 3/3 - Compares pretty favorably to its nearest point of comparison in Commune with Lava, this is 100% in red's pie, and Rare definitely feels right. I can't argue it should be mythic so I won't even try. Balance: 2.5/3 - Where Commune was basically restricted to Big Red commander decks and that's it, this has the potential to see play in 60 card formats. I can imagine something like dirty kitty (Skirk Prospector + Fecundity + Patriarch's Bidding) blowing this wide open. I don't think it'll be format shattering, but someone will find a way to make a big impact.
Uniqueness: 1/3 - It's very nearly a dead ringer for Commune, with the only difference being how you figure out X. A card that I personally love, but a card I can't help but weigh heavily against. Flavor: 2/3 - You sort of have room to put in flavor text, it compresses the rules text but not enough for me to mark down for. What I am marking down for is the confusion for how melting down things creates spontaneous ideas? Also the flavor text bugs me significantly, "to be quiet" just begs to be "to stay quiet" instead in my mind, to where I had to read it again to make sure that wasn't how it actually went.
Quality: 2/3 - Multikicker's reminder text should be "you may sacrifice any number of creatures as you cast this spell", the clause about othere costs doesn't appear. Also it should read "Exile X cards, where X is one plus the number of times Molten End was kicked" - see the Burst cycle for reference. Main Challenge: 2/2 - Main Challenge is met. Sub-Challenges: 1.5/2 - First subchallenge says you can't use "end of turn", you use "end of your next turn" - the clause is still there, I'm giving you half a point because it's technically true but obviously not an intended way around it.
Total: 19/25
Appeal: 1.5/3 - Timmy is confused. Johnny loves people misplaying into this. Spike understands it but angle shooting is a valid strat, so he'll try it once or twice. Elegance: 1/3 - There's a very good reason we haven't had an auction card printed in almost 15 years. This is an unfortunate case of where the effect is fairly simple in practice but the magic legalese needed to make it work is deafening.
Viability: 2.5/3 - This is for sure a black card, almost splitting the cost of Choice of Damnations - I do feel it would have to be mythic rare just for complexity reasons, you don't want this showing up every draft - rare is right for power. For that reason I won't penalize you extra for what should violate a sub-challenge. Balance: 0/3 - This card can't function as intended. In the case of the other auction cards you are forced to pay life, so you can bid more than you have if you like, you just lose the game before you can do anything with the auction you won. With permanents, there's no restriction on how high you can go because the game will only make you do as much as you can - you can't sacrifice more permanents than you control, but you can bid to do exactly that, and if two players know that the bidding will just...never stop.
Flavor: 2/3 - You don't have room for flavor text, but you desperately need to find some way to explain what's going on here. Uniqueness: 3/3 - Yeah, that's a pretty easy call.
Quality: 3/3 = No errors here! Main Challenge: 2/2 - Main Challenge met. Sub-Challenges: 2/2 - Both Sub-challenges met.
Total: 17/25
Appeal: 2/3 - Timmy doesn't like weird stuff like this. Johnny likes a fog that can also negate opposing combat tricks, which is the real reason Spike is looking at it. Elegance: 2/3 - Much like Icarii's card, the legalese needed to make this work ends up making a normally simple effect really pretty tough to grok. It's doable, but you need a lot of help.
Viability: 3/3 - White has enough "during combat" effects to make this viable, Rare is probably right, maybe mythic for complexity reasons but the case isn't as strong so I'll let it slide. Balance: 2/3 - Every application of this card is going to be so niche that you'll have to re-read how it interacts with things to figure then all out. It's not game-breaking but it'll either be very good or very dead, with little in between.
Uniqueness: 2.5/3 - It's a fog, and there's plenty of those, but it's a weird enough fog mechanically that I can only just barely classify it as such so it's only a minor penalty. Flavor: 3/3 - Bigger Stick Diplomacy is never not going to work in situations like this. Once you see how it works you'll really start to get a deeper insight into the roots of things.
Quality: 2/3 - Should be "cast End it Now only during combat" - see Curtain of Light and Angelic Favor. Should also specify that it becomes the POSTCOMBAT Main Phase, which is a term Wizards has used, most recently on Neheb, the Eternal. Main Challenge: 2/2 - Main Challenge is met. Sub-Challenge: 2/2 - Both Subchallenges met.
Top 16 - 2012 Indiana State Championships Currently Playing: GBStandard - Golgari Safari MidrangeBG RBWModern - Mardu PyromancerWBR RLegacy - Good Old Fashioned BurnR
Elegance: 3/3 - You read it, you get it. Everything flows here, and it's a great image.
Viability: 3/3 - Compares pretty favorably to its nearest point of comparison in Commune with Lava, this is 100% in red's pie, and Rare definitely feels right. I can't argue it should be mythic so I won't even try.
Balance: 2.5/3 - Where Commune was basically restricted to Big Red commander decks and that's it, this has the potential to see play in 60 card formats. I can imagine something like dirty kitty (Skirk Prospector + Fecundity + Patriarch's Bidding) blowing this wide open. I don't think it'll be format shattering, but someone will find a way to make a big impact.
Uniqueness: 1/3 - It's very nearly a dead ringer for Commune, with the only difference being how you figure out X. A card that I personally love, but a card I can't help but weigh heavily against.
Flavor: 2/3 - You sort of have room to put in flavor text, it compresses the rules text but not enough for me to mark down for. What I am marking down for is the confusion for how melting down things creates spontaneous ideas? Also the flavor text bugs me significantly, "to be quiet" just begs to be "to stay quiet" instead in my mind, to where I had to read it again to make sure that wasn't how it actually went.
Quality: 2/3 - Multikicker's reminder text should be "you may sacrifice any number of creatures as you cast this spell", the clause about othere costs doesn't appear. Also it should read "Exile X cards, where X is one plus the number of times Molten End was kicked" - see the Burst cycle for reference.
Main Challenge: 2/2 - Main Challenge is met.
Sub-Challenges: 1.5/2 - First subchallenge says you can't use "end of turn", you use "end of your next turn" - the clause is still there, I'm giving you half a point because it's technically true but obviously not an intended way around it.
Total: 19/25
Appeal: 1.5/3 - Timmy is confused. Johnny loves people misplaying into this. Spike understands it but angle shooting is a valid strat, so he'll try it once or twice.
Elegance: 1/3 - There's a very good reason we haven't had an auction card printed in almost 15 years. This is an unfortunate case of where the effect is fairly simple in practice but the magic legalese needed to make it work is deafening.
Viability: 2.5/3 - This is for sure a black card, almost splitting the cost of Choice of Damnations - I do feel it would have to be mythic rare just for complexity reasons, you don't want this showing up every draft - rare is right for power. For that reason I won't penalize you extra for what should violate a sub-challenge.
Balance: 0/3 - This card can't function as intended. In the case of the other auction cards you are forced to pay life, so you can bid more than you have if you like, you just lose the game before you can do anything with the auction you won. With permanents, there's no restriction on how high you can go because the game will only make you do as much as you can - you can't sacrifice more permanents than you control, but you can bid to do exactly that, and if two players know that the bidding will just...never stop.
Flavor: 2/3 - You don't have room for flavor text, but you desperately need to find some way to explain what's going on here.
Uniqueness: 3/3 - Yeah, that's a pretty easy call.
Quality: 3/3 = No errors here!
Main Challenge: 2/2 - Main Challenge met.
Sub-Challenges: 2/2 - Both Sub-challenges met.
Total: 17/25
Elegance: 2/3 - Much like Icarii's card, the legalese needed to make this work ends up making a normally simple effect really pretty tough to grok. It's doable, but you need a lot of help.
Viability: 3/3 - White has enough "during combat" effects to make this viable, Rare is probably right, maybe mythic for complexity reasons but the case isn't as strong so I'll let it slide.
Balance: 2/3 - Every application of this card is going to be so niche that you'll have to re-read how it interacts with things to figure then all out. It's not game-breaking but it'll either be very good or very dead, with little in between.
Uniqueness: 2.5/3 - It's a fog, and there's plenty of those, but it's a weird enough fog mechanically that I can only just barely classify it as such so it's only a minor penalty.
Flavor: 3/3 - Bigger Stick Diplomacy is never not going to work in situations like this. Once you see how it works you'll really start to get a deeper insight into the roots of things.
Quality: 2/3 - Should be "cast End it Now only during combat" - see Curtain of Light and Angelic Favor. Should also specify that it becomes the POSTCOMBAT Main Phase, which is a term Wizards has used, most recently on Neheb, the Eternal.
Main Challenge: 2/2 - Main Challenge is met.
Sub-Challenge: 2/2 - Both Subchallenges met.
Total: 20.5/25
IcariiFA - 17/25
slimytrout - 19/25
JimmyGroove - 20.5/25
Currently Playing:
GBStandard - Golgari Safari MidrangeBG
RBWModern - Mardu PyromancerWBR
RLegacy - Good Old Fashioned BurnR
Clan Contest 3 Mafia - Mafia Co-MVP